Will the Congress’ gamble to play the Lingayat card work in Dharwad Lok Sabha constituency this time around? That is the question doing the rounds in the constituency during the Lok Sabha elections campaigning.
Over the last 62 years, the Dharwad Parliamentary constituency has seen five MPs, three of them from the Congress. The constituency which was once the stronghold of the Congress has now become a BJP bastion. The Congress has fielded MLA Vinay Kulkarni who is banking heavily on the Lingayat voters who are a major component of the electorate.
Interestingly, despite the constituency having a large number of Lingayat voters, so far only one Lingayat — BJP’s Vijay Sankeshwar — has won the election here. Other Lingayat candidates Shankaranna Munavalli, Chandrakant Bellad, Veeranna Mattikatti, former chief secretary B S Patil and Manjunath Kunnur have failed to win voters’ favour in the Parliament constituency.
The Congress announced its candidate on Monday, just three days before the deadline for filing the nominations. While Prahlad Joshi filed his papers on Monday, Vinay filed the nomination on Wednesday, the last day for filing the papers.
The delay in deciding the candidate for neighbouring Haveri constituency resulted in delay in finalising the candidate for Dharwad. RDPR minister H K Patil was batting for his cousin D R Patil as the candidate for Haveri and his follower A M Hindasgeri for Dharwad seats. However, after much dilly-dallying the Congress decided to field Salim Ahmed in Haveri and Vinay Kulkarni in Dharwad.
Similar move of fielding a Muslim in Haveri and a Lingayat in Dharwad by the Congress has failed to yield result in the last election and H K Patil was harping on this factor while batting for his cousin D R Patil a former MLA. In 2009 Joshi had won against Manjunath Kunnur by a huge margin of 137,663 votes.
Vinay Kulkarni, an MLA from Dharwad rural constituency was not willing to contest the Lok Sabha polls. Instead, he wanted to be a mini- ster in the state. However, chief minister Siddaramaiah who is keen on wresting the seat from BJP is said to have forced him to contest. The constituency has assumed importance as it has state BJP president Prahlad Joshi and is also the home of former chief minister Jagadish Shettar.
Vinay Kulkarni, who belongs to Panchamasali sub-sect in Lingayats, is trying to consolidate the Panchamasali vote bank and is busy parleying with the leaders of other Lingayat sub sects.
Well known in his assembly constituency, Vinay finds it difficult to reach out to voters in other seven assembly segments in a short time and largely depends on the support from local MLAs. The Congress also expects the AAP nominee and Sri Ram Sene candidate Pramod Muthalik to cut into BJP’s vote share. In contrast, the pitch is familiar to Prahlad Joshi as he has vast network of party workers in all the segments.
Time will tell whether Vinay Kulkarni’s riding on caste factor works or not. The constituency has a total of 1.6 million voters.
Over the last 62 years, the Dharwad Parliamentary constituency has seen five MPs, three of them from the Congress. The constituency which was once the stronghold of the Congress has now become a BJP bastion. The Congress has fielded MLA Vinay Kulkarni who is banking heavily on the Lingayat voters who are a major component of the electorate.
Interestingly, despite the constituency having a large number of Lingayat voters, so far only one Lingayat — BJP’s Vijay Sankeshwar — has won the election here. Other Lingayat candidates Shankaranna Munavalli, Chandrakant Bellad, Veeranna Mattikatti, former chief secretary B S Patil and Manjunath Kunnur have failed to win voters’ favour in the Parliament constituency.
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State BJP president Prahlad Joshi who has held the seat for two consecutive terms is seeking a hat-trick victory and has already completed two rounds of campaigning.
The Congress announced its candidate on Monday, just three days before the deadline for filing the nominations. While Prahlad Joshi filed his papers on Monday, Vinay filed the nomination on Wednesday, the last day for filing the papers.
The delay in deciding the candidate for neighbouring Haveri constituency resulted in delay in finalising the candidate for Dharwad. RDPR minister H K Patil was batting for his cousin D R Patil as the candidate for Haveri and his follower A M Hindasgeri for Dharwad seats. However, after much dilly-dallying the Congress decided to field Salim Ahmed in Haveri and Vinay Kulkarni in Dharwad.
Similar move of fielding a Muslim in Haveri and a Lingayat in Dharwad by the Congress has failed to yield result in the last election and H K Patil was harping on this factor while batting for his cousin D R Patil a former MLA. In 2009 Joshi had won against Manjunath Kunnur by a huge margin of 137,663 votes.
Vinay Kulkarni, an MLA from Dharwad rural constituency was not willing to contest the Lok Sabha polls. Instead, he wanted to be a mini- ster in the state. However, chief minister Siddaramaiah who is keen on wresting the seat from BJP is said to have forced him to contest. The constituency has assumed importance as it has state BJP president Prahlad Joshi and is also the home of former chief minister Jagadish Shettar.
Vinay Kulkarni, who belongs to Panchamasali sub-sect in Lingayats, is trying to consolidate the Panchamasali vote bank and is busy parleying with the leaders of other Lingayat sub sects.
Well known in his assembly constituency, Vinay finds it difficult to reach out to voters in other seven assembly segments in a short time and largely depends on the support from local MLAs. The Congress also expects the AAP nominee and Sri Ram Sene candidate Pramod Muthalik to cut into BJP’s vote share. In contrast, the pitch is familiar to Prahlad Joshi as he has vast network of party workers in all the segments.
Time will tell whether Vinay Kulkarni’s riding on caste factor works or not. The constituency has a total of 1.6 million voters.